


The In Between

by Belle_Evans



Series: A Minute [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, M/M, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-03-08 05:49:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18888430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Belle_Evans/pseuds/Belle_Evans
Summary: What choice is there, but to go on.





	The In Between

**Author's Note:**

> A little something that popped into my head this morning. I'm guessing now, I'll probably do a post-Endgame too, but I'll have to see it again and give it some more thought. It could be a second chapter to A Minute, but works as a standalone.

The Speaker of the House, or now the President has asked him to do a series of PSAs. Has asked Cap specifically, Steve has agreed, but on his own terms. Preoccupied with her own grief and dealing with the destruction and fallout when half of the Earth's population suddenly disappears, the President allows him the leeway he requests.

The first PSA, Nat shoots at Avenger's headquarters. They upload it to Youtube on their own. It is without suit or shield. It starts with a close shot of his marriage license. He'd wanted his fellow Americans, fellow world citizens to know that he loved and was loved, but not exactly like this. He wants them to know that he shares in their grief. That to say they are not alone is not an empty cliché. The second image is a photo Nat has taken on her phone. He hadn't known about that picture, or the others. When the unavoidable realization that getting everyone back wasn't going to happen as quickly as they had been taken, and Tony was still nowhere to be found, Nat had taken him aside one night to show him her phone gallery. Scrolling through, he understood why she had gotten so exasperated with him and Sam. Maybe if they had gotten married sooner...

His second favorite photo is the one that appears in the PSA after the shot of the marriage license. It's him and Sam in the quinjet in the front console seats, before they were married. He doesn't remember exactly what was said, but his hand is on Sam's thigh and his head is bent low, toward Sam, laughing. Opposite him, head thrown back, hand over Steve's, Sam is also laughing. As he traces his finger across his husband's image, so beautiful he'd thought when Nat first showed it to him. She'd put a black and white filter over it that seemed to enhance the timelessness. This was them always, forever. Gone. He'd had to walk around the headquarter grounds for a couple hours afterwards. 

There are other pictures. His favorite, the moment after Nat's friend, she hasn't been able to get in touch with either him or his husband since the snap, pronounced them married. Their first kiss. That one he won't share...except with Sam. Nat forwards everything she has to his phone. 

The first PSA, he reveals all of who he is without the shield. “Hello, I'm Steve Wilson. Shortly before the snap, I had the good fortune to marry Sam Wilson, he is my heart and like many of you our life together, our family was destroyed in a moment of cruelty.” It's hard, but Nat is right with him through it all. They do it in one take, no stops for the tears and anger that come. It's the world's re-introduction to him after the registration fiasco. It needs to know he is human, and deeply invested in bringing everyone back. It goes viral immediately, second only to a clip of a dog getting his own puppy. Steve may have looked at that one a time or two himself. Like everyone, trying to grab smiles wherever they can, as they go through the motions of going on. The PSA ends with a picture Nat took in Germany. Bucky and Sam are arguing about something, he's standing out of their sightline, suited up, laughing at them. 

He does do a series of suited PSAs helping people understand what steps they need to take depending on who and what they lost, directing them to the appropriate, reputable organizations set-up to help. A few of the PSAs are specifically for children who have lost their parents. Another loss he knows keenly, and didn't think he would have to revisit in quite such a devastating way. He also does hundreds of visits to schools and hospital children's wards. 

Then, suddenly Tony is back, and the battered hope gets a little bit of a boost. Then Tony goes, and Steve really leans into the work Sam did before he and Nat entered his life. The support groups Steve runs are good. At least, he thinks they are. People seem to feel a little bit better when they leave. He wants to, feel better, but he has had two lifetimes worth of loss. Every once in a while he wonders what it would be like to go to sleep and not wake up. As a kid, he feared he would die in his sleep. It's not something he fears anymore. It might be something he actively wishes for now. 

Then Scott Lang is on their doorstep.

fin


End file.
